Canelo's key to victory is DEFENSE, not offense

[Tom Cruise]

Standing off Floyd and trying to box with him is suicide imo. Mayweather thinks quicker than probably any other fighter in the sport (Rigo is the only one comparable) and is always 1-2-3steps ahead of his opponents thought process. You stand off him he will destroy you with feints and misdirection and his speed of hand and foot will mean he can hit you and get away before you even think about landing back.

Canelo's advantage is his size, strength and power, he tries to box with FM he gives up those advantages and plays right into Mayweathers strengths.

[cupocity303]

Trout was pawing and slapping, there's a reason his "defense" looked so much better in that fight, or even "good".

All that movement tired him out and he does not know how to transition from defense to offense. By the time he's done trying to slip punches, floyd will have landed what he needs to and will be on the other side of the ring by the time canelo decides to throw a punch

A point-by-point comparison between Trout and Floyd is irrelevant. Canelo threw differently than he otherwise would because he had a lanky southpaw in front of him. He threw that big looping right hand because that head was way up there and Trout body was contorted in the southpaw stance which means that his head was angled differently than your orthodox fighter. He won't have to do that against 5'7 Floyd.

And I disagree that he was tired. That won't be much of a factor unless that 152 catchweight really is a problem

[JoeKidd]

Defense from what? Playing tag? Papa Smurf will tag him anyway. He needs to do some bull-rushing and hopes he gets lucky! Maybe it's time Papa Smurf took a stumble. Canelo has to hope leather is on the ready for that stumble!

[cupocity303]

Standing off Floyd and trying to box with him is suicide imo.

Nonsense. The narrative here being that every fighter has to "put pressure" and be "aggressive" against Floyd, no matter what their style or skill set is.

It's just not true, and is overkill.

Mayweather thinks quicker than probably any other fighter in the sport (Rigo is the only one comparable) and is always 1-2-3steps ahead of his opponents thought process.

This is unfounded hyperbole. And yes, lets add on Rigo to the mix because he just got his what? 11th professional victory?

You stand off him he will destroy you with feints and misdirection and his speed of hand and foot will mean he can hit you and get away before you even think about landing back.

You're making my point for me. You primarily mentioned defense by saying "feints and misdirection". Yes, he does this with an overeager Fighter trying to knock his head off. If Canelo doesn't oblige and tries to be as equally defensive by moving his head side to side as he did VS Trout, Floyd will be forced to land too, or stink out the joint, which is fine by me.

This mentality that the 'other guy' has to make the fight happen is incorrect and leads to losing before the fight even starts. Floyd has to land punches too you know; And why make it easy on him? His offense and speed are not as good as you think. He doesn't throw fast combinations and his lead right or counter left are at their best when the fighter has absolutely no defense at all. You negate those pretty looking punches by being defensive.

Canelo's advantage is his size, strength and power,

I disagree. These are NOMINAL advantages. Meaning statistically on a sheet of paper, these are the advantages. Everyone can read the head-to-head stats and see that Canelo is categorically bigger (in weight), younger and therefore presumingly stronger. But those are not his key-to-victory advantages. That's a shallow way of thinking You are falsely limiting Canelo's true abilities.

he tries to box with FM he gives up those advantages and plays right into Mayweathers strengths.

This is just not true. See above. He can't do any worse than by plodding forward as the "Stronger, younger, bigger, powerful" ( nominal Hyperbole Blah!) guy.

[_original_]

Yes, but Marquez was too small and used to outboxing smaller 5'6-ish type of fighters. Canelo just gave a good account of himself against a 6'1 guy. Now if it was a 6'1 plodder who gives up his height and fights small, it would be one thing. But it was against a slick southpaw at that.

That's enough for me to know that he has what it takes to box with Floyd on even terms. Despite Floyd's greatness, he is overrated because of his defense, leading to a spill over in the offensive department. He is actually not that impressive offensively (not lately anyway) and I'd like to see how he lands effectively against a good defender. Floyd obviously is not an offensive-high-activity-rate type of puncher. This can make up for lack of clean landing in some cases. So what about trying to defend against whatever Floyd is trying to do instead of always looking to crack his defense and land on him. You're basically giving away half the advantage with that sort of mentality. Where does it say that Floyd wins the fight by default if you're not able to crack his defense. How about him trying to crack yours if you're set on actually DEFENDING and not trying to trap him against the ropes or going for broke with looping punches (a la Hatton).

Good post and I definitely respect your opinion. However, I disagree with several of your statements. For one, I don't agree that Floyd looks less impressive on the offensive side these past years. Well, I suppose if you're talking about putting together combos and being busy then I can see that point of view. We probably won't see Floyd put together a Gatti/Corrales type of offensive display ever again, but he doesn't need to. His accuracy, timing, and ring generalship are what separate his offensive skills from the rest of the fighters. And I don't see Canelo's defense being a big puzzle for Floyd, he'll adapt as the fight prolongs and start finding openings if Alvarez does get cute.

Canelo trying to fight off of what Floyd does may not work if 1) Floyd proves to land quicker than Alvarez can react and 2) Canelo can't capitalize off of successful defensive moves. In other words, Alvarez will be banking on not only being able to defensively time Mayweather's attacks but also successfully being able to mount his offense against the assuming elusive target. I have yet to see Canelo adequately demonstrate these dimensions in a way that makes me believe he'll be able to implement such a strategy against Mayweather. Not saying it's impossible and cant' happen, but I just don't see Canelo pulling if off.

In regards to Canelo's performance against Trout, I wasn't overly impressed so we're just gonna have to agree to disagree on that topic. I also subscribe to the notion that Canelo just doesn't transition smoothly from offense to defense, he's either doing one or the other. He does both very well, but not in unison. And if he has to chose, I think sticking to offense is his best bet on Sept. 14th.

[SUPREME.]

Trout is NOT 6'1.

He is 5'9.

Take that piece of information into account, TS, then revise your opinion.

[cupocity303]

Trout is NOT 6'1.

He is 5'9.

Take that piece of information into account, TS, then revise your opinion.

You're right, for some reason I remember him being listed at 6'0. I guess you're right.

At least someone noticed it and thought to correct it. This shows me that a lot of our short attention spanned, quick information feed posters only react off of a thread title when they comment, instead of reading for a change, which makes it pointless to write more than a few sentences (this is the Twitter age). Either way, he did look way taller (I.E. like a Corrales) so my point doesn't change too much.

[cupocity303]

Trout is NOT 6'1.

He is 5'9.

Take that piece of information into account, TS, then revise your opinion.

If I'm not mistaken, he used to be listed at 5'11 for a lot of fights until Shotime revised his height down to 5'9 and a half. So he is 5'10 if we even it out.

Shotime does this a lot compared to HBO. They revised Allan Green's 6'3 to 6'1. Jermain Taylor from 6'1 to 5'11 at one point (I believe it was the Carl Froch fight), which surprised me.

Still looks like a tall, lanky fighter compared to Alvarez. Maybe because both Canelo and Floyd are really 5'7 ish.

[Doctor_Tenma]

That's a horrible idea but let me say one thing, Canelo likes to be a cutie in there so Canelo WILL attempt this. However, expect to see him fail miserably. Mayweather has the reach advantage, the hand speed advantage and is considerably much faster on his feet, this plan won't work.

[IronDanHamza]

That's a horrible idea but let me say one thing, Canelo likes to be a cutie in there so Canelo WILL attempt this. However, expect to see him fail miserably. Mayweather has the reach advantage, the hand speed advantage and is considerably much faster on his feet, this plan won't work.

Canelo doesn't look comfortable when trying to fight that way, IMO.